


Knowing and Seeing

by Chickygirl



Series: 'Mione and Sev Moments [12]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Eventual Romance, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 09:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24468667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chickygirl/pseuds/Chickygirl
Summary: Severus is captured after the death of Dumbledore by the Order, and Hermione takes it upon herself to save him.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Severus Snape, Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Series: 'Mione and Sev Moments [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560205
Comments: 9
Kudos: 80





	Knowing and Seeing

Hermione thought back on when she was was just a child and her parents had set out rat traps laced with poison, the time she had seen a fat grey one with a dapple of white upon it’s nose convulsing in the midst of a seizure one day. All she could do was stare uncomprehendingly at what was happening at the time. Her mother told her she understood the way that she was feeling, that knowing something like this is happening is oh so different than seeing it being done and knowing you are in some way responsible for it. That sense of disconnectedness in the face of something as unknown a thing as death followed the small girl all throughout the events that would happen within the war days.

She had known the Order tortured people as she watched them bring in bound and silenced Death Eaters time and time again. So, she and the others watched as Severus was brought in one day she would always remember just as vividly as she had that day of the being of seeing the unknown concept of death happen. Still wanted for the killing of Dumbledore, he is completely composed as if the Order of the light had not sent back the remains of his darker brothers in arms. A cold mask of nothingness settled over his face that rearranged itself into something so familiar yet so strange and different. He had met Hermione’s eyes, and she held a dislike of that expression more than ever since as it now had settled itself upon the face of someone she had admired for seven years. A man she had admired for his mind if nothing else as she had certainly disliked certain other aspects of his personality more than once in her school years.

It is so like, but not at all, like that one day with the rat once more. A disconnectedness laced with an awareness lying just below the surface, a feeling that would soon explode her heart into many many pieces.

Later they would hear the voices of the other people in the Order who had occupied the house at the moment he had been brought in. They hadn't put up a silencing charm this time as someone most likely having forgotten it in their anger, or maybe yet, remembering but wanting them to know that the person who had killed their precious Headmaster Dumbledore was suffering for his sins. Most likely Sirius. They tortured Severus for hours, the man who is silent throughout it all until they each hear a sudden outburst of rage filled yells as someone finally lost their temper and screamed at him louder than everyone else. Whatever their action, Severus finally conceded to his pain and released a slight moan that shouldn’t have been heard it being so low, but somehow was booming to Hermione’s ears.

They came pouring out minutes later, Sirius in the lead with a furious look on his face. From where she and the others had stood across the hall, Hermione caught a glimpse of Severus shirtless and tied to a chair shaking and panting, his hands behind him and his head bowed upon his neck as if in prayer before the door barred her way from the view. This aspect of which she had never seen from the normally so emotionless man with only occasional masks of dislike to show off his ability to experience emotion set off one of her own she should have felt those many years ago when she had seen a helpless animal dying, this glimpse much more different from the stoic and clasped up man she was used to. She had clamped a hand over her mouth to cover a sob and squeezed her eyes tight as Harry and the others looked to her. Their muddled questions of confusion swimming through the sudden rushing of blood and sound of heartbeats moving to her ears as her fingernails tried their absolute best to dig into the wall behind her, their voices are finally closed off from her as she locked herself in the bathroom. 

“Hermione, what is the matter?”

_How can someone be so callous as to be immune to the torture of another human being, even if it was a time of war and pain and death?_

_How could she have ever felt so emotionless at seeing a much more worse thing?_

Closing it loudly behind her, she pressed her hand tightly to her mouth once more to keep the sobs from escaping louder as her other wrapped around her stomach. Someone knocking on the door and trying to rattle the handle interrupted her muddled thoughts and feelings, but she just told them she wished to be alone. Her heart trying to pound out of her chest, it felt as if it was trying to eat itself alive. Looking into the mirror from where she leaned upon the now blissfully silent door, the handle digging painfully into the small of her back, she could see her red lined eyes leaking tears and lips reddened from the blood smeared along where her tooth had attempted to stop her throat’s strangled sounds.

Making a decision after sitting on the toilet seat trying to calm down, she sprinkled cold water on her too hot face and unlocked the door. Praying the others don’t hear her light footsteps from where they sat feet away talking softly before she could make her way to the warded door, she almost got her wish before Harry’s head came up being so attuned to her almost silent gait that had accompanied him throughout all his years in the wizarding world. Her footsteps as familiar to him as his own.

“Hermione?” Surprised and confused as he watched her do a quick series of complicated wand movements, he realized she meant to go within the room of the murderer with no protection but her own wand at the same time she finalizes them. “ _What the bloody hell are you doing?_ ”

Vaguely hearing other yells from downstairs as well as heavy stomps ascending the stairs, she had quickly completed her own wards before she whipped closed the door in Ron’s face who had gotten to her first owing only to the larger length of his stride. Having warded it with stronger ones than Kingsley had put around the room to keep them out a while longer, she pressed her forehead to the cold wood that started vibrating just as she cast a silencing charm. She listened to the raspy breathing of the man who had said nothing as she had locked herself in with him. 

Turning around, she saw his head still bowed but his breathing noticeably softer as if he were aware he now had her attention even as he had not once yet brought his eyes upward to a single face of those around him who had captured him. Hermione felt the same urge to cry as she had in the hallway, but managed to keep the rest of her sobs in with only one escaping while fresh tears trailed along her cheeks. Not caring about how she would look compared to her former professor who had already been tortured for hours, she slowly walked towards him until her thighs paused right in front of his bowed head. He still hadn’t looked up even as she heard his knuckles crack with clenching fists. Going to her knees in front of him, she hesitated for only a moment as she raised her hands to either side of his cheeks before gently pulling his head up until she could see his eyes. Or eye rather, as someone had caused the other to turn to a purple swollen mass. Sirius she suspected once again as the others of the Order would always resort solely to that of magical manipulation and torturing rather than that of the muggles the former prisoner of Azkaban had lived so long like in the absence of his wand. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together only once again to keep another episode at bay. Her eyes opening again just as a whisper came from the man, her name. 

She had looked up into his eye before drawing out her wand, pausing when his head flinched back a tad, “Hello, Professor.” She said softly, “Just keep still and I’ll fix your eye up good as new.”

She watched as it slowly deflated until most of his eye was visible with only bruising and a slight swelling remaining. They dropped in his exhaustion but kept snapping back open to hold her gaze, and she could tell the Occlumency shields he had had up for all the years she had known him were finally down as the hardness of them had softened his black marble eyes into pools of dark water. Whatever had been said or done to him behind closed doors allowing her to see into his soul for at these these spare moments, something she would not take for granted.

“I am sorry for what I am about to do, Professor. But I can not leave you like this.” She tells him, raising her wand to his temple framed by bruises. “It is the only way if you refuse to help yourself.”

His eyes widened in fear and sudden understanding as she placed the tip of her it to his temple, but she simply apologized only once more as she became immersed in his memories. She flipped through many before she heard overtones of a conversation with Dumbledore, one in which would allow for him to go free into the world and be absolved of his supposed crime. Withdrawing softly from his head, she saw his complete expression of relief before his forehead fell to hers. Untying him just as her wards were broken and helping him to his feet, he leaned onto her as he whispered his thanks and she understood exactly. Understood it wasn’t just for getting him out of the continuation of pain he had endured for more than half of his life. 

The rest of the Order filled the room as they aimed their wands at her, Harry stepping between only her and clearly leaving Severus in the line of fire and while trying his best to get her to let go of the sagging man. Her face still felt blotchy and warm as she looked at Professor McGonagall, the only other one in the room without a wand pointed to them other than her friends. 

Quickly withdrawing her own memories of viewing Severus’ Unbreakable Oath to Dumbledore, Hermione handed it to the Deputy Headmistress before finally exiting from the tense room to lay the tired man in her own room. Not trusting anyone with him anymore than herself even when they finally knew the truth as no doubt most if not all would continue to blame the man for his actions and not his complete and utter love for those he cared for.

Even though she could see he was dead tired as she scourgified him of the sweat and blood crusted onto his skin, she lay beside him without touching him. He simply looked to her, asking her why she felt as if she could get away with doing what she just did. 

Hermione looked him in his eyes, “Because knowing something has happened is a completely different thing than seeing it for yourself.” With the last of his strength before he fell to sleep, he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, and Hermione could feel it become heavier as the moments went by and as his eyes finally closed. Just staring at his sleeping face as she contemplated what to do next as she placed her hand over his.


End file.
